[C] = Cirincione, Joseph. Bomb Scare: The History & Future of Nuclear Weapons. Columbia University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780231135115. [Preview with Google Books]
[G] = Gavin, Francis J. Nuclear Statecraft: History and Strategy in America’s Atomic Age. Cornell University Press, 2015. ISBN: 9780801456756.
[S] = Sagan, Scott D., and Kenneth N. Waltz. The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: An Enduring Debate. 3rd edition. W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. ISBN: 9780393920109.
[T] = Trachtenberg, Marc. History & Strategy. Princeton University Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780691023434. [Preview with Google Books]
| SES # | TOPICS | READINGS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Class Overview | No readings assigned |
| 2 | Nuclear Weapons – Why They Matter Today |
[C] Introduction. [C] Chapter 1: Building the Bomb. [C] Chapter 2: Controlling the Bomb. [C] Chapter 3: Racing with the Bomb. [G] Chapter 1: History, Theory, and Statecraft in the Nuclear Age. Gavin, Francis J. “History and America’s Atomic Future: Four Questions on Nuclear Statecraft.” War on the Rocks, April 15, 2015. |
| 3 | The Second World War, the Manhattan Project, and the Decision to Drop the Bomb |
Hersey, John. “Hiroshima.” The New Yorker, August 31, 1946. Younger, Stephen M. “A Short History of Nuclear Weapons.” Chapter 1 in The Bomb: A New History. Ecco, 2010. ISBN: 9780061537202. ViewColumbia. “Dr. Philip Zelikow, ‘Some Uses of History’.” July 13, 2010. YouTube. |
| 4 |
Second Generation Nuclear Powers Guest Lecturer: Professor Vipin Narang, Associate Professor of Political Science, MIT |
Narang, Vipin. “Posturing for Peace? Pakistan’s Nuclear Postures and South Asian Stability.” International Security 34, no. 3 (Winter 2010): 38–78. ———. “Nuclear Strategies of Emerging Nuclear Powers: North Korea and Iran.” Washington Quarterly 38, no. 1 (2015): 73–91. |
| 5 | The Birth of the Nuclear Age – Nuclear Deterrence |
Brodie, Bernard. “The Weapon: War in the Atomic Age,” and “Implications for Military Policy.” Chapters 1 and 2 in The Absolute Weapon: Atomic Power and World Order_. (PDF - 10MB)_ Edited by Bernard Brodie, Arnold Wolfers, et al. *_The above readings are from a preliminary draft of the book and has marginalia from General Dwight D. Eisenhower_. Freedman, Lawrence. “The Rise and Fall of Deterrence.” Chapter 1 in Deterrence. Polity, 2004. ISBN: 9780745631134. ———. “The Meaning of Deterrence.” Chapter 2 in Deterrence. Polity, 2004. ISBN: 9780745631134. |
| 6 | Nuclear Weapons and the Early Cold War | Holloway, David. “Nuclear Weapons and the Escalation of the Cold War, 1945–1962.” Chapter 18 in The Cambridge History of the Cold War, Volume I: Origins. Edited by Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad. Cambridge University Press, 2012. ISBN: 9781107602298. |
| 7 | Nuclear Proliferation and Nonproliferation, Part I |
Sagan, Scott D. “Why Do States Build Nuclear Weapons?: Three Models in Search of a Bomb.” International Security 21, no. 3 (1996 / 1997): 54–86. Gavin, Francis J. “Strategies of Inhibition: U.S. Grand Strategy, the Nuclear Revolution, and Nonproliferation.” International Security 40, no. 1 (2015): 9–46. |
| 8 | The Origins of Overkill |
[T] Chapter 3: A ‘Wasting Asset’; American Strategy and the Shifting Nuclear Balance, 1949–1954. Rosenberg, David Alan. “The Origins of Overkill: Nuclear Weapons and American Strategy, 1945-1960.” International Security 7, no. 4 (1983): 3–71. |
| 9 | The Berlin Crisis and Nuclear Weapons |
[G] Chapter 3: Nuclear Weapons, Statecraft, and the Berlin Crisis, 1958–1962. [T] Chapter 5: The Berlin Crisis. |
| 10 | The Cuban Missile Crisis |
[T] Chapter 6: The Influence of Nuclear Weapons in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Hershberg, James G. “The Cuban Missile Crisis.” Chapter 4 in The Cambridge History of the Cold War, Volume II: Crises and Détente. Edited by Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad. Cambridge University Press, 2012. ISBN: 9781107602304. |
| 11 | Détente and the Origins of Nuclear Arms Control |
Brands, Hal. “Progress Unseen: U.S. Arms Control Policy and the Origins of Détente, 1963–1968.” Diplomatic History 30, no. 2 (2006): 253–85. Trachtenberg, Marc. “The Past and Future of Arms Control.” Daedalus 120, no. 1 (1991): 203–16. |
| 12 | The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty |
[G] Chapter 4: Blasts from the Past: Proliferation Lessons from the 1960s. Brands, Hal."Non-Proliferation and the Dynamics of the Middle Cold War: The Superpowers, the MLF, and the NPT." Cold War History 7, no. 3 (2007): 389–423. |
| 13 | Nuclear Proliferation and Nonproliferation, Part II |
[S] Preface. [S] Chapter 1: More May Be Better. [S] Chapter 2: More Will Be Worse. [S] Chapter 3: Waltz Responds to Sagen. [S] Chapter 4: Sagen Responds to Waltz. Gavin, Francis J. “Politics, History and the Ivory Tower-Policy Gap in the Nuclear Proliferation Debate.” Journal of Strategic Studies 35, no. 4 (2012): 573–600. |
| 14 | The Nuclear Balance and Nuclear Strategy |
[T] Chapter 1: Strategic Thought in America, 1952–1966. Burr, William, and David Alan Rosenberg. “Nuclear Competition in an Era of Stalemate, 1963–1975.” Chapter 5 in The Cambridge History of the Cold War. Volume II, Crises and Détente. Edited by Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad. Cambridge University Press, 2012. ISBN: 9781107602304. Long, Austin, and Brendan Rittenhouse Green. “Stalking the Secure Second Strike: Intelligence, Counterforce, and Nuclear Strategy.” Journal of Strategic Studies 38, no. 1–2 (2015): 38–73. |
| 15 | Mid-term | No readings assigned |
| 16 | The 1970s: Proliferation Pressures, Strategy Debates |
[G] Chapter 6: That Seventies Show: The Consequences of Parity Revisited. Brodie, Bernard. “The Development of Nuclear Strategy.” International Security 2, no. 4 (1978): 65–83. Nuti, Leopoldo, Frédéric Bozo, et al., eds. “Editor’s Introduction.” In The Euromissile Crisis and the End of the Cold War. Edited by Leopoldo Nuti, Frédéric Bozo, et al. Stanford University Press, 2015. ISBN: 9780804792868. Holloway, David. “The Dynamics of the Euromissile Crisis, 1977-1983.” Chapter 1 in The Euromissile Crisis and the End of the Cold War. Edited by Leopoldo Nuti, Frédéric Bozo, et al. Stanford University Press, 2015. ISBN: 9780804792868. Burr, William. “A Scheme of ‘Control’: The United States and the Origins of the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group, 1974–1976.” International History Review 36, no. 2 (2014): 252–76. |
| 17 | How to Study / Think about Nuclear Dynamics |
[T] Chapter 7: Making Sense of the Nuclear Age. Gavin, Francis J. “What We Talk About When We Talk About Nuclear Weapons: A Review Essay.” (PDF) H-Diplo/ISSF Forum, no. 2 (2014). ———. “‘What We Do, and Why it Matters: A Response to FKS’ (A Response to H-Diplo/ISSF Forum on ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Nuclear Weapons.’.” H-Diplo, June 18, 2014. |
| 18 |
ScreeningDr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Black and White, 95 min. 1964. |
Schlosser, Eric. “Almost Everything in ‘Dr. Strangelove’ Was True.” The New Yorker, January 17, 2014. ———. “Deconstructing ‘Dr. Strangelove’.” The New Yorker, January 18, 2014. ———. “Primary Sources: Permissive Action Links and the Threat of Nuclear War.” The New Yorker, January 17, 2014. ———. “Always / Never.” The New Yorker, January 17, 2014. |
| 19 | Nuclear Weapons and the End of the Cold War | Long, Austin, and Brendan Green. “Stalking the Secure Second Strike: Intelligence, Counterforce, and Nuclear Strategy.” Journal of Strategic Studies 38, nos. 1–2 (2015): 38–73. |
| 20 | Nuclear Dynamics after the Cold War: Rogue States, Terrorism, and Great Power Politics |
[G] Chapter 7: Same as It Ever Was? Nuclear Weapons in the Twenty-First Century. Allison, Graham. “How to Stop Nuclear Terror.” Foreign Affairs, January / February 2004. Lieber, Keir A., and Daryl G. Press. “Why States Won’t Give Nuclear Weapons to Terrorists.” International Security 38, no. 1 (2013): 80–104. |
| 21 | Global Zero? |
[G] Chapter 8: Global Zero, History, and the ‘Nuclear Revolution’. Shultz, George P., William J. Perry, et al. “Next Steps in Reducing Nuclear Risks: The Pace of Nonproliferation Work Today Doesn’t Match the Urgency of the Threat,” Wall Street Journal, March 6, 2013. ———. “Deterrence in the Age of Nuclear Proliferation,” Wall Street Journal, March 7, 2011. ———. “How to Protect Our Nuclear Deterrent,” Wall Street Journal, January 19, 2010. ———. “Toward a Nuclear-Free World,” Wall Street Journal, January 15, 2008. ———. “A World Free of Nuclear Weapons,” Wall Street Journal, January 4, 2007. Kirkpatrick, Melanie. “Why We Don’t Want a Nuclear-Free World: The Former Defense Secretary on the U.S. Deterrent and the Terrorist Threat,” Wall Street Journal, July 13, 2009. ViewColumbia. “Dr. Hans Blix: ‘Can We Move Toward a Nuclear Weapon-Free World?’.” June 14, 2010. YouTube. |
| 22 | Nuclear Policy Simulation |
NSAM 320: Task Force on Nuclear Proliferation. November 25, 1964. NSAM 335: Preparation of Arms Control Program. June 28, 1965. “National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction.” (PDF) December 2002. “V. Prevent Our Enemies from Threatening Us, Our Allies, and Our Friends with Weapons of Mass Destruction.” President Bush, West Point, New York, June 1, 2002. |
| 23 |
Centrifuges – Technology and History Guest lecturer: R. Scott Kemp, Assistant Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering, MIT |
Kemp, R. Scott. “The Nonproliferation Emperor Has No Clothes.” International Security 38, no. 4 (2014): 39–78. |
| 24 | The Future of Nuclear Dynamics and Policy | No readings assigned |
